The Bridge Between Heaven and Earth

In Pesachim, Rashi points out that the opinion of R’ Meir and R’ Yehuda is that the people of Yericho did not pause during Shema, meaning that they did not allow a break between the end of the sentence of Shema (the word "va-ed") and the beginning of the paragraph of V'a-hav-ta. The halacha is that one must pause at this point, in order to allow a break between the first sentence, which is one’s acceptance of the yoke of heaven, and the next paragraph, which is one’s acceptance of the yoke of mitzvos.

from Daf Yomi Digest
Distinctive Insight: "Improper reading of the Shema"
Menachos 71

Some would like to be like the sun, aloof from this world. Whatever material matters they accomplish during their stay occur as if by chance, with no real involvement of their own.

Others become entirely wrapped up in all the fetters and chains of life. They suffer its scars and bruises, delight in its offerings, thirst for its rewards and tremble at its pain.

True tzaddikim emulate their Creator. To them, every detail of life has meaning and purpose - every step is a decision, every move is deliberate. And yet, they remain above it all.

What is their secret?

They remember they are not the body, but the soul.

-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
"Better Than the Sun"
for Chabad.org

I know the two quotes from above might not seem connected, but bear with me, their association will become apparent.

I was talking with my wife this morning before I left for work. Like me, she appreciates the writings of Rabbi Freeman at Chabad.org and we both gain illumination from his insights as we receive them in our email inboxes each day.

We were talking about the differences between Christian and Jewish viewpoints concerning the purpose of human beings and why we are here. Often, I encounter Christians who are very future-oriented and who can't wait to "go home to Jesus". By contrast, Judaism produces almost nothing in terms of commentary regarding the World to Come and I've never heard an observant Jew say that they can't wait for the arrival of the World to Come.

What's the difference? Weren't we born for a reason? Is our life on earth a meaningless prelude to a heavenly joy? If what we do here doesn't matter, why didn't God just "cut to the chase" and create our existence in Heaven immediately?

I know I'm being unfair. There are a great many Christians who dedicate their lives to the service and well-being of others, yet this doesn't always seem to be the emphasis of the church or the "average" Christian. It seems like, as Rabbi Freeman writes, some folks "would like to be like the sun, aloof from this world. Whatever material matters they accomplish during their stay occur as if by chance, with no real involvement of their own". Christians say they want to become more like Jesus which is very much in line with Freeman's statement that true "tzaddikim emulate their Creator". Yet if "every detail of life has meaning and purpose - every step is a decision, every move is deliberate", then the "fruit" of every Christian in the here-and-now should be sweet.

Is it always?

In my previous quote from the Daf, the commentary describes a pause between the formal Shema and V'ahavta which signifies the transition between accepting the "yoke of heaven" and accepting the "yoke of mitzvos" or the commandments. The Master put it like this:

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” -Mark 12:29-30

As human beings, we act as a "bridge" between heaven and earth. We perceive the will of God for through our faith and trust in the Creator and then we act out that will in the world with our minds and our hearts and our hands. Our service to God is not just in the contemplation or Him and not just in the doing good to others, it is in the marriage of one to the other. In the "Stories off the Daf" commentary for Menachos 71, The Shem MiShmuel, zt"l offers this analysis:

“To explain, we must first understand that every human being is a microcosm, as we find in the Midrash. Our heads parallel the upper world while our bodies mirror the lower world. One’s intellect alludes to the sun, while his heart is like the moon which receives its light from the sun. Like the sun, one’s intellect should be used to illuminate proper conduct. His heart should only desire that which his intellect knows is fitting.

“It is impossible to be a whole person without these two faculties working in concert. If the intellect knows what is good but the heart is drawn in the opposite direction, it would be better for him not to have intellect at all. In Mishlei we find that such a person is compared to a pig with a golden nose ring - a valuable adornment graces an unworthy object. The same is true when the heart follows the directives of the mind when that mind is crooked. This is why in ancient times people clung to idolatry. Their hearts followed their intellects, but their minds confused light for darkness and darkness for light. This is worse than those whose intellect is straight but their hearts do not follow its directives.”

The Shem MiShmuel then explained the connection with the practice of the people of Yericho. “The first verse of Shema straightens the intellect, since the very word Shema means to listen carefully and understand. V’ahavta clearly refers to the heart, as the verse continues, ‘…upon your heart.’ The people of Yericho didn’t pause at the juncture in order to deepen their awareness that the heart must follow after the well-guided mind. The sages, on the other hand, would pause to remind themselves that without toil it is easy to disconnect the heart from the intellect.

He concluded, “Although the way of Chazal was more correct, the sages did not protest against the practice of the people of Yericho because, in essence, their meaning was the same.”

The key to this teaching, at least as far as I see it, is captured with these two phrases:

Our heads parallel the upper world while our bodies mirror the lower world. One’s intellect alludes to the sun, while his heart is like the moon which receives its light from the sun. Like the sun, one’s intellect should be used to illuminate proper conduct. His heart should only desire that which his intellect knows is fitting.

The first verse of Shema straightens the intellect, since the very word Shema means to listen carefully and understand. V’ahavta clearly refers to the heart, as the verse continues, ‘…upon your heart.’

This is what warms me when I hear the Shema and perhaps why reciting the Shema is required of every Jew twice daily. It reminds us of who we are in the here-and-now and how we are to set our purpose in life. We're not here just to sit around and wait for the bus to Heaven. We are to emulate our Master as worthy disciples and to do the will of our Father in Heaven with every living moment of our existence. This is why we were born and why God "chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless" (Ephesians 1:4).

I recently quoted from the Prophet Micah, but it seems a fitting way to end today's blog post:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. -Micah 6:8

Good Shabbos.

Rabbi Yaakov would also say: A single moment of repentance and good deeds in this world is greater than all of the World to Come. And a single moment of bliss in the World to Come is greater than all of the present world. -Pirkei Avot 4:17

Book Review: The Way of Kabbalah

Everyone is searching for something. Some pursue security, others pleasure or power. Yet others look for dreams, or they know not what. There are, however, those who know what they seek, but cannot find it in the natural world. For these searchers many clues have been laid by those who have gone before. The traces are everywhere, although only those with eyes to see or ears to hear perceive them. When the significance of these signs is seriously acted upon, Providence opens a door out of the natural into the supernatural to reveal a ladder from the transient to the Eternal. He who dares the ascent enters the Way of Kabbalah.

from the Way of Kabbalah
by z'ev Ben Shimon Halevi

You could call this book "timeless" in the sense that it was first published in 1976 and yet, presents in a manner totally accessible to the reader 35 years later. Halevi offers his audience a guided tour and an introductory lesson into the world of Kabbalah.

Structurally, the book is quite linear. It starts off with a basic introduction and definition of what Kabbalah is and what it means at it's core. It then proceeds to lead the reader through a series of chapters on personality and social theory. This part of the book reads like many of the texts I studied when I was in graduate school and pursuing my Masters degree in Counseling Psychology. There are a number of different theories or models of how a human personality is structured and Halevi offers yet one more as conceptualized by Kabbalah. This is important to understand because Kabbalah is the journey of taking a person as they enter into the discipline and, through the guidance of a maggid in a structured group, assists the person in achieving higher spiritual and mystic levels of functioning and awareness.

From understanding the individual personality, the book proceeds to describing the dynamics of a study group in Kabbalah. Beyond that, different but equally valid approaches to accessing the higher levels of existence and accessing God are described. The last chapter being simply "Ascension"; the ultimate goal of the mystic.

Most people seem to believe that Kabbalah is the Jewish Mystic tradition, but as I said in my review of Gershom Scholem's Major Trends of Jewish Mysticism, Kabbalah is only one of those traditions, albeit, the most well-known.

Kabbalah uses a diagram model called the Sefirotic Tree of Life. This isn't really a static diagram because a number of different concepts can be illustrated using the basic tree structure including the seven levels of heaven, the seven levels of teaching, and interestingly enough, the seven deadly sins (and as you can see, Kabbalah isn't afraid of borrowing from other traditions and religious conceptualizations).

When I was asked to read this book, I was expecting a fully Jewish treatment of the topic, since Kabbalah is a Jewish mystical discipline, but the author makes good use of Christian symbols, including that of Jesus, in expressing different ideas. Halevi refers to Jesus as "Joshua ben Miriam" the "Maggid of Nazeret" as a great Kabbalist in his own right and offers up a number of his teachings from the Gospels as Kabbalistic in nature, this despite the fact that Kabbalah is thought to have originated in 13th century Spain. I don't criticize the author for this, since most Jewish mystic forms can trace at least some of their history back to earlier eras and practices and Halevi isn't the only one to state that the Gospels read like Jewish mystic writings.

The caveat to my last paragraph is that the author also compares Jesus and Buddha as equals and at once recognizes Jesus as a renowned maggid or religious teacher while denying he is the Messiah. Given that Halevi is rather liberal in quoting from the Christian Bible and attributing the quotes to a "maggid", I wonder if, as a Jew, he is really that generous with his praise toward the "Christian Messiah" or if he is casting his net, so to speak, to catch the largest number of "fish" (readers and potential neophyte Kabbalists, in this case)? There's no way for me to tell if inclusion of "Joshua ben Miriam" in Kabbalistic teachings is common or unique to this author, at least not without reading other Kabbalah related books or sources, so don't draw too much from the appearance of Jesus here.

If I had to pick a textbook for a course called "Introduction to Kabbalah", I might consider Halevi's book. The chapters are short, the book is short (only 216 pages), and the content, which could easily be extremely complex, is fairly easy to take in. I'm not enthralled with the book, although by reading other reviews, I can see others are, but it did give me a concise introduction into "the way of Kabbalah." If you're looking for a similar introduction, Halevi's book is can give you that.

Remember though, this is only an introduction. Actual techniques and practices, while mentioned, are not described in detail. The book recommends group study of Kabbalah under a qualified maggid. This is not a guidebook for a "do-it-yourself" mystic journey to discover the higher realms.

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne)
The Matrix (1999)

Search for the Messiah in Pools of Unknowing

The first phase in the development of Jewish mysticism before its crystallization in the mediaeval Kabbalah is also the longest. It's literary remains are traceable over a period of almost a thousand years, from the first century B.C. to the tenth A.D., and some of its important records have survived...Between the physiognomy of early Jewish mysticism and that of mediaeval Kabbalism there is a difference which time has not effaced.

Gershom Scholem
Chapter 2: Merkabah Mysticism and Jewish Gnosticism
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism

The first thought I had when I read this passage from Scholem's classic is that this early mystic Jewish tradition occurred within the lifetime of Jesus, the apostle Paul, and later "church fathers", and some the writers during the era of the Gospels and Epistles could possibly have been influenced by such a tradition.

OK, I know you may think that's rather far fetched, but considering the "mystic" nature of John's Gospel as well as the imagery in Revelation, I don't think I'm reaching too far out of the bounds of credibility, particularly considering all (or most) of the early "documenters" of the teachings of the Jewish Messiah were Jewish themselves. Perhaps Yochanan ben Zakkai, who Scholem cites as one of "the most important representatives of mystical and theosophical thought" during the mid-first century era influenced some of the writings about Yeshua (Jesus) and his followers.

All of this, at least in terms of my very limited knowledge, is very thinly connected and anyone even marginally more familiar with the topic (which includes just about anyone familiar with Jewish mysticism) could blow away my arguments and suggestions with a mild sneeze. Still, it's rather compelling to take a look at these tentative connections and consider the possibilities.

Derek Leman, in his recent blog post Biblical Glimpses Into Mystical Horizons makes a few comparisons of his own:

EPISTLES: The one who ascended into the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12. The uniting of all things in Messiah in Ephesians 1. The one who descended into human form in Philippians 2. The God and Lord of 1 Corinthians 8. The Radiance of His Glory in Hebrews 1. The One in Whom All Things Adhere in Colossians 1 (and the Image of the Invisible God).

Scholem writes:

Thus for example in the "Visions of Ezekiel", which have recently become known, Ezekiel sees the seven heavens with their seven Merkabahs (driven by four chayot or "living creatures"; Isaiah 6:2, Revelation 4:8) corresponding to the seven heavens is still innocent of any mention of Hekhaloth, or chambers, of the Merkabah.

This references Ezekiel's vision (Ezekiel 1:4-26) and definitely recalls the scriptures Leman cites including:

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. -2 Corinthians 12:1-7

Again, I can't say for certain nor to I assert as absolute, the connections I'm proposing here, but novice in mysticism that I am, it certainly sparks some interest. Still, Paul seems to be saying that he has accomplished what many mystics throughout the ages have attempted: a transition (in one form or another) into the realms outside of our own into those that approach the Throne of God...and he returned sane and whole.

I've said numerous times before in other blog posts, that I'm becoming convinced that we cannot understand the teachings of the Jewish Messiah and his early disciples without some ability to look at those teachings through a Jewish mystical lens. This goes beyond an understanding of Torah and Talmud (and possibly flies in the face of Judaism's more "rational" understanding of God), but there are "mysteries" exposed in the Apostolic scriptures that suddenly become more comprehensible if we don't examine them only with a literal and practical microscope. Seeing that Jewish mysticism can trace its origins to the first century B.C.E. (and perhaps before even that), makes it all the more likely that such a tradition found its way into the early Jewish writings describing the person and mission of the Jewish Messiah. How the divine could become a man and dwell among human beings requires belief beyond the physical realm and mysticism is the door that leads to the world where the mysterious can, in some fashion, become known.

I suppose you could just consider me a person who has gone off the deep end and that mysticism is a fool's errand. You wouldn't be alone. From Scholen's book:

If, finally, you were to ask me what kind of value I attach to Jewish mysticism, I would say this: Authoritative Jewish theology, both mediaeval and modern, in representatives like Saadia, Maimonides, and Hermann Cohen, has taken upon itself to task the formulating an antithesis to pantheism and mythical theology, i.e.: to prove them wrong.

Here, we see some of the greatest luminaries among Jewish wisdom and intellectualism standing opposed against the Jewish mystic tradition. Nevertheless, Jewish mysticism has survived such attempts to be extinguished and endures into modern times in Kabbalah and Chasidic Judaism. It occurs to me that the philosophical vs. the mystical approach to God doesn't have to be either/or. They can both co-exist as different perspectives; perceiving God from radically different angles of observation (and participation). And then, there's this:

Levertoff believed that the Gospels and Chasidic Judaism merged seamlessly, and he dedicated his scholarship to demonstrating that conviction. He is said to have best developed his ideas in his major life work, a manuscript on the subject of Christ and the Shechinah. Unfortunately, the book was never published and the manuscript has been lost; however, he presented a lecture titled "The Shekinah Motif in the New Testament Literature" to the Society of the Study of Religions that we may assume represented something of an abstract of the larger work. This short paper provides a glimpse into a compelling and radical attempt to reconcile Jewish mysticism and faith in an exalted, divine Messiah.

Commentary on Paul Philip Levertoff and
Love and the Messianic Age

A rare but direct and living connection between the Chasidim, their mystic understanding of things, and the Gospel of John brought young Feivel Levertoff into discipleship under the great Rebbe Yeshua of Nazareth. He recognized the mystic in the Gospels and in the teachings of the Messiah. In fact, Levertoff thought it was impossible to understand the Jewish Messiah without a mystic understanding.

Where does that leave those of us without that understanding? It leaves us at the doors to the libraries and maybe even the synagogues, daring to enter and striving to learn more.

Knowledge is beyond me; exalted, I am incapable of it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? And where can I flee from Your Presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; were I to take up wings of dawn, were I to dwell in the distant west, there, too Your hand would guide me, and Your right hand would grasp me. -Psalm 139:6-10

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Depths

Hundreds of linguistic and ideological differences between the commonly accepted Masoretic version of the Pentateuch and the Samaritan text indicate that editing may be one of the world's oldest professions.
Professor Yair Hoffman
Bible Studies / The things that you're liable to read in the Bible
Written for HAARETZ.com

In Israel, a new archaeological “discovery” of sorts is buzzing and making bold claims that they may be the next “Dead Sea Scrolls.” They include a collection of scrolls as well as 70 lead codices (ancient scripts bound in book form, rather than as scrolls). However, we have conflicting reports on the nature of these “newly found” artifacts. They are owned by “Hassan Saeda, a Bedouin farmer in Galilee who says they have been in his family’s possession since his great-grandfather found them in a cave in Jordan, a century ago.” Although there is still a lot of skepticism surrounding these artifacts, there are some strong voices that are willing to attest to their authenticity, wanting to avoid another possible Shapiro Affair.
from the Digging with Darren blog

How did the things we read now in the books of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John get written down in the form we now have them? There are many decisions to make if we try to reconstruct a possible or probably story of gospel transmission. I’ll try to make the story interested, not too bogged down with long lists of sources and proofs. I’ll keep that kind of writing short and refer the reader to various scholars such as Mark Goodacre, Richard Bauckham, Paul Anderson, and others that I know I will find along the way have added something significant to an understanding of gospel transmission.
Derek Leman
Chronicling the Formation of the Gospels #1
from the Yeshua in Context blog

All of the quotes you've just read have something in common. They are all the opening paragraphs of articles addressing the struggle we have in understanding, and in some cases locating, the Word of God. While many Christians in the world believe that the Bible, as it is translated into English (or as it is rendered in people's favorite English translation) is totally sufficient as the original, inerrant, Word of God; the source of truth and facts about God, Jesus, and everything, is this really so?

The quotes I posted and the articles they come from seem to indicate that the Bible, all by itself, as we have it today, isn't the end all and be all of the word of God.

I don't say this by way of complaint. I'm beginning to come to terms with the uncertainty that the Bible introduces as a "stand-alone" document and the requirement of interpretation and examination in "studying the Word". Yet, while we rely on the Bible for so many things, we can also be ignorant of what the Bible can't do for us.

He was born in Israel and lives in the north. He trains rabbinical court judges and writes essays on the weekly Torah portion, which he says are well-respected. Clearly possessed of a sharp, inquisitive mind, he could be described as a religious sage. During the flight, he was preparing a commentary on the Torah portion of Miketz, in Genesis, and he shared various questions and insights with me. I referred to variations of certain words in Genesis as they appear in the Samaritan Pentateuch, and to how the Greek Septuagint translation of the Bible contains sentences that do not appear in the Masoretic version.

My fellow passenger did not know what I was talking about. Not only was he unaware of the existence of ancient versions of the Bible, but he also lacked knowledge of the essence of the Masoretic text - the canonical Hebrew text redacted by scholars in Palestine and Babylon toward the end of the first millennium. He did not know, for instance, that the diacritical marks date only from the 10th century, or that manuscripts and later printed versions of the Masoretic text are not identical.

Yair Hoffman, professor emeritus of Bible Studies at Tel Aviv University, was describing a man he met on a recent flight from New York, a man who was an ultra-Orthodox Jew and who "trains rabbinical court judges and writes essays on the weekly Torah portion, which he says are well-respected." Yet, as Hoffman relates, this intelligent "religious sage" did not grasp some of the most basic facts about the Bible, what it is, and where it comes from. How can this be?

How can this be for any of us?

In my own case, I just didn't know any better. Fortunately I found out (the hard way) and once I got over my shock, I started consuming every text I could lay my hands on, specifically on the New Testament, and with a focus on Jesus and the "deity issue".

Our own Messianic Bible scholar, Derek Leman, addresses similar matters regarding the Gospels in a recent blog post and I certainly hope he continues to write articles for his series "Chronicling the Formation of the Gospels". It's not enough to "have" the Bible as it exists today. "Having" isn't understanding. Like a pool of unknown depths, we must go beyond the surface, brave the shadowy waters, and search for what awaits us as we dive into a sea of many hidden truths.

I had rather high hopes for the recently discovered lead codices before I found out that they were fakes. I did entertain the interesting question "are they Christian or Kabbalistic" with the hopeful thought that they could, in their own way, be both. That may sound strange to some of you, but I've found that looking at the mystery of the Jewish Messiah through a mystic and Chasidic lens has revealed more to me than most traditional Christian commentaries and dogmatic interpretations.

Saying "the Bible isn't enough" probably sounds horrible and maybe even a bit heretical, but if a surface reading of the Bible were enough, we wouldn't have commentaries, interpretations, and scholarly theological theses. Certainly observant Jews don't think the Bible is enough. Otherwise, we (they) wouldn't have Talmud, Mishna, and Gemara. When I introduce this topic among some folks associated with my congregation, I get the argument that we must rely on the Word of God, not the word of man. Yet the Bible we have today is as much (if not more) the word of the human writers, interpreters, and translators as it is the Word of the One, True God of the Universe.

While the "facts" of the Bible may be contradictory, and the truth of the Bible remains elusive, somewhere in the middle of man, God, and the words on the page, I see an inviting but mysterious portal. Paul said that in the present age, we see the things of God as "through a dark glass" (1 Corinthians 13:12). I believe we're looking at the surface of a body of water. We can't tell what's under that surface, how deep the water goes, how hot or cold it is, and what sub-sea enigmas it contains. If we want to know what God has to tell us, we have to dive in, sometimes half-blind, and pray that once we've made our "leap of faith", we will find the illumination under the blue waves that we can't find in the light of day.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Chasing Cars

Who, being in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the form of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

-Philippians 2:6-7 (NIV)

Moreover, it appears that the meaning of "being in the form of God" may have been presumed as apparent and known to the intended readers, for the text does virtually nothing to explain this interesting phrase.

Larry W. Hurtado
Chapter 3: A "Case Study" in Early Christian Devotion to Jesus
How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?

This is probably premature and I'm sure I have no business posting this opinion on the web without a lot more study to back it up, but it's what's on my mind just now, so here it is. As many of you who read this blog regularly know, I'm pursuing, among other things, some sort of understanding of the deity of Jesus. Just how is Jesus God the Son and how is God the Father also God? Is there a way to understand the "mechanism" of this process and particularly, how early in "the church" it became apparent that Jesus was (and is) divine?

I'm not going to render a detailed analysis of these questions but I've been wrestling with a few thoughts lately.

Ever since reading "The Word became a human being and lived with us, and we saw his Sh'khinah, the Sh'khinah of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14 from the Complete Jewish Bible translated by David H. Stern) some years ago, I've tried to imagine the connection between the Shechinah (Divine Presence) as it descended upon the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the desert and the living, breathing, human Messiah:

And he set up the enclosure around the Tabernacle and the altar, and put up the screen for the gate of the enclosure. When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set out, on their various journeys; but if the cloud did not lift, they would not set out until such time as it did lift. For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Lord rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys. -Exodus 40:33-38 (JPS Tanakh)

This passage, and the analogous event in Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11), indicates that the Shechinah is not just a cloud of fog and a fancy lights show, but that it is the physical manifestation of God in our world. It isn't the totality of God, however:

Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest? -Isaiah 66:1

If God can't (or won't) squeeze His total "self" into the Mishkan or Temple, what was in Solomon's Temple and where was the totality of the God of the Universe? Are we talking about two Gods here or different manifestations of God's nature?

Ever since I read Levertoff and the FFOZ/Vine of David commentary on his work, I have been approaching a closer understanding of the Jewish Messiah as, somehow, mystically, metaphysically, a "container" or "expression-in-flesh" of God's Shechinah (which is considered a feminine aspect of the Divine, making things all the more interesting). Looking at the JewishEncyclopedia.com definition under "In the Targumim":

The majestic presence or manifestation of God which has descended to "dwell" among men. Like Memra (= "word"; "logos") and "Yeḳara" (i.e., "Kabod" = "glory"), the term was used by the Rabbis in place of "God" where the anthropomorphic expressions of the Bible were no longer regarded as proper. The word itself is taken from such passages as speak of God dwelling either in the Tabernacle or among the people of Israel...

No, this doesn't get any easier and in fact, it gets even more off the beaten path (at least my beaten path). I think the reason the whole "deity" issue is so hard to grasp is that, in Christian circles, we tend to try and understand it all through completely rational, intellectual means, or just abandon all hope of coming to any understanding at all. Engaging in a mystic understanding is pretty tough for most believers to accept.

Now let's compare the Shechinah to another concept, this time from Kabbalah as described at AynSof.com:

Ayn Sof (sometimes transliterated as Ein Sof) refers to the infinite Divine (or G_d). In Hebrew Ayn Sof means "Boundlessness", but is usually translated as "Without End." Often it is referred to as the "Infinite No-Thingness." It should be understood that this does NOT mean that Ayn Sof is "nothing" for It is NOT a THING, but is a "somethingness" that we cannot define in human terms. Ayn Sof, in the Kabbalistic tradition, is the ultimate source of all creation or existence!

Ayn Sof, at least as far as my limited understanding can describe it, is the infinite, invisible, unknowable, non-object object, non-entity entity, ultimate creative force, God (God the Father?).

I hate to reduce these concepts down and make them too simple, but would I be so far out of the ballpark to suggest that there is an infinite, invisible, non-corporeal, God, and then suggest there is some part of Him that He can shrink, humble, extend, and intersect with the created Universe; a part of Him that He can allow us to see, touch and some part of Him with which we can interact? Can I then apply that part of Him with which we can interact, that part we saw in the Tabernacle and in Solomon's Temple to the existence and being of the Messiah?

I don't propose this as an answer but suggest it as a possibility. I'll probably be pursuing this for years. I'm sure I'll write more about this. Yes, I'm an unqualified amateur. I'm like this guy:

You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it.
The Joker (played by Heath Ledger)
The Dark Knight (2008)

I'm a dog chasing cars. I'm not sure I'd know what to do with one if I ever caught it, but I just can't help chasing cars.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Book Review: Yeshua in Context

The stories of Yeshua demand a response. The normal order of meaning, the rules of the game called life, are changed in his stories. We are each confronted with the problem of meaning, the possible ways his story intersects our story.

In a number of his sayings, Yeshua says something about himself or about a way of life that calls for action. He implies that when we have encountered him (in our case, through story and not in person), we will understand something about the realm above, about a deeper life, about a breakthrough from the present world to the world to come.

Derek Leman in the final chapter of his book
Yeshua in Context: The Life and Times of Yeshua the Messiah

Yeshua in Context is a book about stories. You might say that, from Leman's perspective, the writers of the Gospels are storytellers rather than reporters. Leman, a theologian who earned his Master's degree in Hebrew Bible studies from Emory University, and who is a Rabbi at Tikvat David Messianic Synagogue, addresses what many New Testament scholars view as inconsistencies in the Gospels, by presenting them as differences of intent in what the writers were trying to communicate about the Jewish Messiah.

Leman is also a storyteller. By writing this book, he's sharing with his audience his own perspective; his own story, about who the Jewish Messiah is to him and what Yeshua means in Leman's life. Leman tells us a story that is largely scholarly and somewhat personal, with just a hint of the mystic.

Yeshua in Context is also about giving the reader access to the story. At only 154 pages long and presenting no lengthy set of footnotes, no extensive bibliography, and not even a single appendix, Leman constructs a text that takes the complexity of the life of Yeshua (Jesus), his teachings, his 1st century Jewish context, and his Messianic identity, and opens them up to the rest of us with deceptive ease.

I say "deceptive" because there's a great deal of density contained just beneath the surface of each page in the book. For instance, Leman takes the familiar parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) and tells the reader something about Yeshua's role as a prophet as it relates to the prophetic tales of Isaiah and Jeremiah. He takes the much discussed and interpreted Beatitudes and presents his own story about the coming Kingdom of God. He engages the parable of the wicked tenants (Mark 12:1-12) and discusses the mystery of why a father would send a beloved son on an assuredly fatal mission.

He even says something about a topic near and dear to me; the divine nature of the Messiah as related to the Shechinah and seen through a Kabbalistic lens:

The Aramaic paraphrases of Yeshua's day, the Targums, said about this story that the Israelites looked for healing to the Memra of God, the Word of God, the manifestation of God on earth...This is exactly who Yeshua is claiming to be: the one with all the nature of God manifested on earth, the radiation of God's being, his Word or Presence. In kabbalistic terminology (from later Judaism), Yeshua is the sum of all sefirot (emanations) and the Father is the Ein Sof (the One without End, the unseeable One...).

I said before that there were no lengthy collection of footnotes in this book, but a brief Bibliography is offered right before Chapter 1, and in the body of each chapter, any of the works cited are referenced by the author's last name and page number. As teacher and student, the writer adequately points back to his research, albeit in a way that doesn't interrupt the flow of his narrative.

When I write reviews for technical books, I usually include a mention of any book-associated websites and the value added to the book by on line material. In this case, Leman has created a website (thanks to the power of WordPress) dedicated to continuing for the reader, the education found in his book. In a sense, it's a very large extension to what, on the surface, seems like a relatively short discussion.

One of the reasons I asked to review this book was because of my personal attempt to reconcile the internal discrepancies of the Gospels with the authority of the Bible. How can the holy writings of Christianity be authoritative if they don't perfectly and completely "line up", so to speak? Is the source material of Christianity flawed and, if so, how can we depend upon it as an accurate rendition of the author of our faith?

I'm not sure I found the whole answer in Leman's book, but I think I found some of the answer as related to other books and, more to the point, other perspectives. I'm coming to an understanding of the discrepancies recorded in the Gospels, in terms of what traditional Jewish scholars would view when reading the differences between Talmudic and Midrashic versions of the same story. From a modern, western point of view, we struggle with inconsistent reports from two or more witnesses of the same event, and attempt to harmonize the various iterations. From the Jewish student's vantage point however, no problem exists. Each "story" is accepted on its own merit without the need to have it completely make sense with other stories. The reader gleans the important elements from the story without trying to make it match up with what others have written about the same anecdote.

This is where, in my opinion anyway, the authority of the Bible can be discovered. Not in viewing it as a comprehensive report on testimony delivered in a court case, but as a collection of holy writings by righteous men (tzaddikim) who want us to experience the most righteous one of God through a series of mystic tales.

You might not find that all of your questions about the Jewish Messiah are answered in Derek Leman's book, but it's a good place to start.

Yeshua in Context is available for purchase at Mount Olive Press.

The Hovering Dove

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.
-Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSV)

And he set up the enclosure around the Tabernacle and the altar, and put up the screen for the gate of the enclosure. When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. When the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set out, on their various journeys; but if the cloud did not lift, they would not set out until such time as it did lift. For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Lord rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys. -Exodus 40:33-38 (JPS Tanakh)

You're probably wondering what connects these two events, but I think they have a great deal in common and perhaps, they describe virtually the same act; the act of the divine dwelling among humanity. Let me explain.

Over lunch, I continued to read the commentary for Love and the Messianic Age by Paul Philip Levertoff. In the commentary (page 44), I found this:

In Romans 5:14, Paul says that Adam was "an impression of Him who was to come." That is to say that Adam was made in the image of Messiah. This teaching is very similar the esoteric idea of Adam Kadmon described above. Another connection in Jewish literature between Adam Kadmon and Messiah can be found by comparing two different versions of the same midrash on Genesis 1:2. Genesis Rabbah 2:4 (Soncino) states: " 'And the spirit of God hovered': this alludes to the spirit of Messiah"; whereas the same midrash in Midrash Tehillim 139:5 has (Braude) "the spirit of Adam."

What instantly captured my attention about the quote were the words, "And the spirit of God hovered..." It immediately reminded me of the "something like a dove" sequence from the depictions of the baptism of Jesus in the four Gospels (not to mention the spirit of God hovering over the waters during Creation).

I remember being in a Bible study once and we were discussing why the spirit was described as "something like a dove". One of the people there said that a dove in flight tends to flutter side to side as it descends; sort of how you see a feather or a sheet of paper fall when it descends from a significant height. The object can seem to "hover" as it comes down.

I have no idea if that describes what actually happened as the "dove" came down upon the Master, but that scene, along with what I've been reading in the commentary on Levertoff, made me consider what it is about the Messiah that makes him Divine.

This is especially relevant to my recent investigations (including book reviews) of the deity of Christ. The Christian explanations I've read thus far supporting the deity haven't been very satisfying but I wonder if the concept of the "Shechinah becoming flesh and dwelling among us" (John 1:14, my interpretation) might not fit better. After all, we have a series of precedents in the Bible relative to the Divine Presence and both the Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple. The Divine Presence inhabited them, and though they didn't literally "become" God, they contained a special essence of the Divine.

I don't state this as an answer, but simply offer it for consideration (and I know it's full of trap doors). The commentary on Levertoff's teaching states that, in Jewish mysticism, it is believed that the totality of God cannot be actively perceived by humans. At any point where people have perceived God in any way (cloud on top of Sinai, Moses seeing God's back but not his face), God has chosen to "humble" or "condense" Himself into an essence that is detectable by people.

What if that's what happened when "the Word became flesh?"

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Good Shabbos.

Bringing the Mashiach Revisited

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? -2 Peter 3:9-12 (NRSV)

As a Jew, I believe that the coming of the Messiah does not depend on my belief that he will come, nor does it rest solely in God's hands. I believe it remains our task to bring the Messiah -- that he will arrive only when we are in a state of readiness to bring him, to welcome him, to appreciate him. Salvation must be earned. And thus it is what we do, as Jews, that will determine the time of the Messianic arrival.

from Bringing the Messiah - On Our Own Terms
by Rabbi Jerome Epstein
Published on September 1999
at The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism site

A little over a week ago, I posted a blog article called We're Here to Bring Mashiach, which apparently didn't get a lot of attention. I was comparing the actions of Moses in building the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the desert to the Jewish concept that, we have something to contribute to the world that will affect the timing of the coming of the Messiah.

Last night, I was reading the first chapter in the book Love and the Messianic Age by Paul Philip Levertoff, and in reviewing the commentary by the First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ)/Vine of David writers, I found this very interesting (some may say "startling") statement:

That the Shechinah sojourns with Israel in exile can be demonstrated from the Torah; as it says "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again." (Genesis 46:4) This may also be learned from the apostles: "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22) Through repentance we hasten the day of the coming of our righteous Messiah and thereby draw His Presence out of exile.

I'm sorry, what was that? Let's read it again:

Through repentance we hasten the day of the coming of our righteous Messiah and thereby draw His Presence out of exile.

That sounds like, "the sooner we repent, the sooner the Messiah comes." That means, a delay in repentance (of the Jewish people? Of the world?) delays the Messiah, while hastening repentance will bring him sooner. Not Biblical? Let's read 2 Peter 3:12 again, and I'll emphasize the key part of the verse:

...waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

Levertoff, in  Love and the Messianic Age, quotes from Isaiah 22:4, Jeremiah 31:16 and the Jewish mystical text, the Zohar (specifically Zohar I, 203a and Zohar III, 20b) to illustrate how the Shechinah, the Divine Presence which inhabited both the Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple, went into exile with the Jewish people. Levertoff used the unique and mystical perspective (I know this may sound very alien to some of you) of Chasidic Judaism to interpret the New Testament in ways we may not imagine, but also in ways that may add a meaning we've never understood.

Christians (as well as some Jews) reading this, may criticize me for applying the Old Testament as well as Jewish mystical texts to the New Testament writings about Jesus (and although the Zohar is thought to have been compiled in the 12th or 13th centuries, C.E., some of the individual writings may go back to the 1st or 2nd centuries, very close to the time of the Apostles), but we must remember that Jesus was and is the Jewish Messiah and that it was the Jewish people who alone, worshiped the One, True God thousands of years before our Gentile ancestors ever heard of Jesus. Jews were honoring God, observing the Shabbat, and studying the Torah for a hundred generations, while the Gentile ancestors of those of us who call ourselves Christians were bowing to pagan idols of wood and stone and even offering their children to the fire.

What I've just said certainly suggests that the Jewish people might have a few insights into their own Messiah that the rest of us may lack.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I'll write a complete review of Love and the Messianic Age after I've finished going over all of the material (mystic texts must be read more slowly than popular novels), but before that, I will be posting several "mini-reviews" as I encounter a number of little gems within Levertoff's treasure trove.

The FFOZ/Vine of David commentary contains a caveat stating that Jewish mystical interpretations may not be your cup of tea, so you could read what I'm writing with a bit of skepticism. That's understandable, especially if you've been taught to believe that the Zohar and the study of Kaballah equates to occult fortune telling and casting of spells. In fact, Christianity has its own mystic tradition (The Cloud of Unknowing, The Interior Castle), which contains analogous material. Mysticism in both Christianity and Judaism is the drive to move beyond studying about God into the realm of fully experiencing God. Levertoff saw the Gospels and the Epistles through a Jewish mystic lens. He saw how the New Testament writings closely mirrored Chasidic mystic lessons, and wondered how it was possible for non-Jewish Christians, especially those without a background in Chasidic Jewish education, could possibly understand what Jesus was teaching.

I wonder too. By reading Levertoff and the commentary addressing his book, I hope to take one or two steps closer to the answer. Wouldn't it be wonderful to discover that we can be a much closer part of God's plan for Creation and the plan to bring the Mashiach than we ever thought possible?

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Traveling Alone

"Madonna said she just felt something was really missing in her life. After all the money, fame and everything, something was still missing. She came to our center where she felt she could just be herself, without the need to hide behind the curtain she always puts around herself. She can be an ordinary person. That's how she explained it to me."

Rabbi Yehuda Berg
Los Angeles Kabbalah Center
from The agent of Kabbalah

What attracts someone as unlikely to be involved in any sort of spiritual endeavour as Madonna to the study of Kabbalah? According to Rabbi Berg, as quoted above, it's a fundamental sense of emptyness or the feeling that, despite being materially successful, that something is still missing.

This is often the same reason people give for turning to Christianity, Buddhism, or some other form of religous observance and study. But Judaism, and certainly Kabbalah, aren't quite the same thing as other religious forms. For instance, Judaism doesn't seek converts and most often actively discourages people from attempting to convert. Also, Kabbalah isn't exactly a "Religion 101" class and Jewish mysticism can be very...mystic.

I find myself attracted to Judaism and sometimes I feel as if my newly-launched journey into studying the foundations of Christianity simply reinforces that attraction. I can't speak to Kabbalah, since I've never even read the Zohar (though it is on my reading list), but why are Christians and other non-Jews interested in and attracted to Judaism?

The other question that's important is, even if Gentiles are attracted to Judaism, why should Judaism, in any sense, open their doors to non-Jews? In the not-so-distant past, some Gentiles have feigned an interest and entered into Jewish study only to ultimately betray their would-be mentors. This would certainly seem to be ample motivation for Judaism to keep its doors closed. Rabbi Berg offers his perspective:

"We genuinely believe that Torah was given to everyone, and if these people come on Shabbat to listen to the Torah or on Rosh Hashana to hear the sound of the shofar, then we've done what it takes.

"We don't feel the need to convert them, and they're happy with the current situation too. We're happy to see them visit Israel because although it is the Jewish state, it has a huge attraction power."

In answering the question, "why should Gentiles reach out to Judaism?", Berg responds:

"It's a chance to broaden one's horizons. The Americans are a sort of herd, going where everyone's going. We believe people have to choose their own way. If it works for them they should use it, and if not they shouldn’t use it. There is a sort of openness in studying. There are famous people who are studying, which helps people connect."

""Torah was not only given to Jews; everything was given to everyone," Berg explains. "Kosher food is not necessarily ours either. Rabbi Shraga (Yehuda's father) says it's open to everyone and we're open to everyone in physical places too – on the Internet and through teachers teaching on Skype."

Of course, Rabbi Berg and the Kabbalah Center are not without their critics:

The Kabbalah Center is often slammed for allegedly trying to make headlines in any way, which does not match the principles of Kabbalah. "We had no intentional strategy to recruit famous people," Berg defends himself. "The way they reached us shows that it all came from them, not at all from us."

Indeed, the Kabbalah Centers are subject to widespread criticism. People say they extort money from people, advance a Torah which is distancing itself from Judaism, pretend to predict the future and adopt Christian symbols. There have even been claims that some of the content being taught in the classes is linked to anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Berg isn't the only one suggesting that Judaism and the Torah can have a wider appeal than just to the Jewish people. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has almost made a career out of offering aspects of Judaism to non-Jews. Last November, I published a blog post reporting on his statements in the media promoting Seven Steps to Judaism for Non-Jews and one of Rabbi Boteach's better known books is Judaism for Everyone. What's going on here?

I don't have a Jewish perspective on why Jews would extend the Torah to non-Jews. Even Rabbi Berg says "There is a part in Judaism which wants it to be for Jews only", so the motivation for some Jewish Rabbis to reach a hand across the gulf that separates Jews from the rest of the world seems difficult to grasp. It is far easier to understand why Judaism would seek to isolate itself from the nations, given the long, painful, and often bloody history of how Gentiles in virtually every nation on earth, have sought to subvert, marginalize, subdue, harrass, and murder Jews.

This brings me back to the question, why are non-Jews attracted to Judaism? We don't have Jewish missionaries knocking on the doors of our homes trying to share the joys of the Torah with us. Synagogues aren't putting signs out front saying that "Everyone is welcome" and posting the times they offer services. Rabbi's aren't "televangelizing" on Saturday mornings, telling "the nations" to repent and seek the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In fact, Messianic Judaism, the form of Judaism that by definition is most likely to seek to build a bridge between the Jewish and Christian worlds, struggles in its approach-avoidance relationship with Christianity and the Gentile disciples within their own midst (and keep in mind that in the world of psychology, "approach-avoidance" behavior is considered pathological).

I think that many Christians seek to satisfy their attraction to Judaism by joining the Messianic Jewish (MJ) world. The One Law (OL) movement within MJ is a particularly safe haven because of the basic premise in OL that Jews and Gentiles are completely equal, not only in the eyes of God, but in the observance of the mitzvot (Torah commandments). More "formal" Messianic Judaism proposes a "Bilateral Ecclesiology" approach whereby, Jews and Gentiles are equal in the sense of access to God, but not in terms of status, role, or mitzvot observance. While the majority of members in Messianic Jewish congregations are not Jewish, there is a drive in Messianic Judaism to develop a relationship with the larger Jewish community, and the presence of so many "Christians" in MJ congregations is at least an embarrassment if not actually an impediment to Jewish acceptance and community.

Despite all of the speed bumps, you still see Gentiles being drawn to the God of Jacob out of a sincere desire to find the true meaning of the God they (we) worship. Modern Christianity emphasizes belief and communal worship but tends to minimize directing the faithful to extend themselves into the world of doing charity and serving others (this isn't absolute, since many churches do have outreach and missionary programs). In contrast, Judaism promotes "deed over creed" and belief and especially spirituality as an abstract concept, are pushed to one side, in favor of "doing" the will of God, not just "feeling" it.

Judaism offers a structure that I don't think Christianity fully understands. Everyone belongs (if they're Jewish) and everyone knows their place. If you are a fairly concrete thinker, Judaism is a more understandable religious form. If you are an expansive and adventurous thinker, study of Torah and Talmud is also an attractive form of "doing" the mitzvot, since studying is a type of worship in its own right.

But does allowing Christians access to Judaism in any form make sense given the long, long history of enmity between these two "sister" religions? I sometimes wonder.

While on the surface, you can find numerous "interfaith" groups seeking to better the world based on their common values, this activity really obscures how truly alien Christianity and Judaism are to each other. The media uses the term Judeo-Christian as if there is more than a casual relationship between our two worlds but this is more of a political, rather than religious term. Christians still bristle at how Jews refuse to accept Jesus as the Jewish Messiah (and some churches still relate to Jews as "Christ-killers") and Jews still view Christian outreach with suspicion, seeing the specter of conversion and assimiilation continuing to cast a threatening shadow over a dwindling Jewish population.

As an intermarried husband (my wife is Jewish...non-Messianic), I live in a world where I walk on a bridge daily. My wife and I share children, a grandson, and a history of almost 29 years of marriage, but when she began the journey to reclaim her Judaism not many years ago, first through the Reform synagogue, and now with the Chabad, the world of religion and faith became one where we do not always easily interact. I know there are certain subjects that we do not address in conversation for the sake of peace in the home, and neither one of us is likely to be able (or in my wife's case, willing) to visit the other's place of worship.

Even having said all of that, I don't see myself surrendering my interest in Jewish study and worship. In one sense, it gives my wife and I a common platform on which to discuss God and who He is to us. On a more personal level, it provides a larger context for me to understand my own Christian faith with the realization that the Jewish people worshipped the One God and kept His Shabbat and His commandments thousands of years before the birth of Christ. I often ponder on the thought that when Moses was on Sinai immersed in the holiness of Hashem, my ancestors were no doubt making blood offerings to unspeakable pagan idols. Who am I and who is Christianity to say that the Jews have no valuable and instructive insights into the God we all claim to honor?

While I find the bridge between our two worlds compelling, and apparently so do a fair number of other non-Jews, I fear that my particular perspective is rather unique. Each of the groups I've mentioned, despite overtures of outreach and community, continue to reside within their walled castles and exist primarily to service their own members. Christians still tend to talk about improving their "witness" but emphasize transmitting a verbal message rather than offering a helping hand. Judaism, with the exceptions of people like Rabbis Berg and Boteach, continues to teach a Torah for the Jews and a distinctiveness from the nations that requires high walls and no points of entry for the Goyim. Messianic Judaism in some ways amplifies the Jewish message of separation from the nations in order to present a more "Jewish" message to larger Judaism, and the One Law movement continues to (for the most part) preach that the church is apostate and (non-Messianic) "Rabbinic" Judaism is a dead end.

I teach a message in my own little group that attempts to balance these positions and challenge some of our assumptions, but I'm only one person. Not being a dictator or a cult leader, I do not demand that my congregation (which doesn't actually "belong" to me) adhere to my view of the "world according to James", which in any event, is undergoing a continuing metamorphosis.

In the end, I can only speak for my own particular attraction to Judaism, since I see my world as a world of one; unique and even idiosyncratic. In Messianic Jewish and One Law groups, most intermarrieds share their faith, and Messianic Judaism represents a resolution rather than a conflict to a "mixed marriage". What works as a solution for most Gentile "Messianics" only furthers the divisions in my own life, including my married life.

Nevertheless, God is still there, and regardless of how anyone reading these words chooses to understand my faith and my dilemma, He is the God of all and, even though I am the merest speck floating on a vast ocean of Creation, I am still a person who was created in His image. Hopefully, that actually means something.

Assuming that God still chooses to be aware of me and my humble life and prayers, I will continue to move forward along the path upon which I now stand. I often refer to Jesus (Yeshua) as my traveling companion, but while he seems to be close at my side during some parts of the journey, at other times, I can't see him at all. It doesn't mean that he's not there (I hope), but that my perception of him has been dimmed through some lack in my own vision.

But it's that same vision that sees both Christianity and Judaism as required elements in my world of faith. I can't imagine one without the other, which again, makes me a rather odd duck, even in Messianic circles. I've noticed a significant drop off in interest on my blogspot lately, which may well mean that my journey along the path has lost its appeal to the rest of the world. While attracted to Judaism for the sake of God and to Christianity for the sake of my Savior, I still don't belong in purely one world or the other. Yet I cannot stay isolated in my small One Law group because my evolving understanding of God doesn't permit such as concrete vision of Jews and Christians as a fully fused identity, and Messianic Judaism in its most Jewish form, struggles with the very presence of people like me. Beyond that, my continued involvement in MJ/OL only serves to further separate my wife and I along the dimension of faith and especially communal worship.

I've been reading (Messianic) Jewish and Christian blog posts lately (yes, I "lurk" too) and in observing the language, concepts, and values being expressed, I realize that in all of those worlds, I am a "stranger in a strange land". I know that as a person of faith, I am most "alive" when I teach and interact with my group, but everything else in the world around me demands that I walk away from them and follow a different course. Though there are ample examples in the Bible that convince me a person of faith must be part of a convocation of worshipers, in my case, I can see no alternative but to proceed forward alone.

Will God choose to continue His relationship with me if I deliberately set myself adrift at sea?

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. -Albert Einstein

Of all the stratagems, to know when to quit is the best. -Chinese Proverb

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark. The sky is clear as I journey, but I know a storm is coming.